Windermere Foundation Quarterly Report Q1 2015

Thanks to the generosity of donors like you, the Windermere Foundation was able to provide over $410,000 dollars in support during the first quarter of this year to organizations that help low-income and homeless families throughout the Western U.S.

Programs benefitting children and youth continue to receive a significant portion of Windermere Foundation funds. These funds are made possible by your ongoing support. Programs like Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Emergency Patient Assistance Fund, which provides food, a change of clothes, transportation, and other essentials that make a big difference for more than 2,000 families a year during a difficult moment in their lives. This fund is supported entirely by donors and an endowment.

Here is a thank you message we received from Seattle Children’s Hospital:

You helped families in their darkest hour…

A patient arrived at Seattle Children’s Emergency Department by helicopter, alone and unconscious. As the Emergency Department team worked to resuscitate the boy who had nearly drowned, his parents drove several hours in stunned silence to the hospital, hoping their son would be alive when they got there. After receiving the good news that he would ultimately recover from the accident, they realized that they’d left their cell phone charger at home and had no way to contact family and friends. Social worker Lynne Hakim says the basic necessities you generously helped purchase, like a simple cell phone charger, enabled this family to cope with all the uncertainty and intensity of an unplanned hospital stay. “If you’ve ever had an emergency where someone came to your aid, then you know the flood of relief that our families feel,” explains Roosevelt Travis, director of Social Work at Seattle Children’s. “I hope everyone who contributed to Operation Family Care knows that the gift cards and groceries they purchased were really rays of hope for many of our families in crisis.”

Thank you for providing a safety net. We estimate that one-third of our families spend every dollar they make on living expenses. There’s no safety net if one or both parents have to miss a paycheck to be with a sick or injured child. For this group of parents and caregivers, the cost of meeting their own basic needs — especially buying food — is probably the biggest financial strain during their child’s hospital stay. “You shouldn’t have to worry about going hungry because your child is in a hospital bed,” Carpentier says. “If we can eliminate just that one stressor for even a few days, it greatly improves parents’ ability to be present for their child — and families are always so appreciative.”

Above is just one example of how Windermere Foundation funds assist those in need. If you’d like to help, click on the Donate button to make a donation.

Thank you for supporting the Windermere Foundation. Your generosity is truly making a difference in the lives of many families in our local communities.